UKRAINE: PRESSURE MOUNTS ON OBAMA AS RUSSIA DIGS IN – Peter Baker writes on A1 of the New York Times: “As Russia dispatched more forces and tightened its grip on the Crimean Peninsula on Sunday, President Obama embarked on a strategy intended to isolate Moscow and prevent it from seizing more Ukrainian territory even as he was pressured at home to respond more forcefully. Working the telephone from the Oval Office, Mr. Obama rallied allies, agreed to send Secretary of State John Kerry to Kiev and approved a series of diplomatic and economic moves intended to ‘make it hurt,’ as one administration official put it. But the president found himself besieged by advice to take more assertive action.
– “‘Create a democratic noose around Putin’s Russia,’ urged Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina. ‘Revisit the missile defense shield,’ suggested Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida. ‘Cancel Sochi,’ argued Representative Mike Rogers, the Michigan Republican who leads the Intelligence Committee, referring to the Group of 8 summit meeting to be hosted by President Vladimir V. Putin. Kick ‘him out of the G-8’ altogether, said Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the Democratic whip.” http://nyti.ms/1i62atN
– But no one in Washington is calling for armed U.S. intervention, notes POLITICO’s Alex Burns: “For Democrats and Republicans who spent much of the last century competing to be Moscow’s most credible antagonist, and much of the past decade fighting over which party killed terrorists more ruthlessly, there was no rush to the battle domestic stations over the weekend.” http://politi.co/1luo6iH
– SECRETARY OF STATE JOHN KERRY will travel to Kiev on Tuesday “to show support for the new leadership there in the face of the Russian military intervention,” writes the Washington Post’s Anne Gearan. “Kerry on Sunday called the rapid movement of Russian troops across the border into Ukraine’s Crimea region unwarranted and outside international law and said Russia would suffer economic and political consequences. ‘He’s going to lose on the international stage,’ Kerry said on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press,’ referring to Putin. ‘Russia is going to lose, the Russian people are going to lose, and he’s going to lose all of the glow that came out of the Olympics, his $ 60 billion extravaganza.’” http://wapo.st/1hFeVbe
– Russian markets tumbled over jitters about the Ukraine incursion, Reuters reports: http://reut.rs/1hFnC5m
THE FRONT PAGE – Wall Street Journal, 4-col lead: “U.S., Europe Threaten to Punish Putin: Russia’s Crimea Incursion Sparks Demand for Withdrawal, Talk of Sanctions; ‘They are Settling In.’” Washington Post, 2-col lead: “Putin’s intent unclear amid armed face off: UKRAINE MOBILIZES RESERVISTS: Russian troops a ‘declaration of war,’ Kiev says.” NYT, second headline: “Putin Engages in test of Will Over Ukraine: Strategy of Subterfuge and Military Threat.” USA Today: “Ukraine standoff deepens: Kiev pleads for help; U.S., allies ready ‘to isolate Russia.’” L.A. Times, 1-col lead: “RUSSIA’S POWER PLAY GAINS STEAM: Officials in Crimea demand Ukrainian Troops Surrender, and the navy chief defects. Kerry is to visit Kiev.”
D.C. GETS ANOTHER SNOW DAY – “Both the House and Senate have canceled votes scheduled for Monday evening due to the impending snowstorm that [was] poised to hit the Washington-area starting Sunday night. The Office of Personnel Management also announced Sunday that the federal government will be shuttered Monday,” POLITICO’s Seung Min Kim writes. “… The office of House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Sunday that those votes will be moved to Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. … In the Senate, a cloture vote on the nomination of Debo Adegbile for assistant attorney general that had been scheduled for 5:30 p.m. Monday will now be held Tuesday at noon, according to the office of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.).” http://politi.co/1hEhOJq OPM: http://1.usa.gov/1bw9GbZ
***CONGRESS ADOPTS FISCALLY RESPONSIBLE MEDICARE SOLUTION! Only if they pass legislation to finally fix Medicare’s broken funding formula. SGR is the problem; H.R. 4015 and S. 2000 are the solution. Let’s act now! FixMedicareNow.org
OBAMA SENDS BUDGET TO HILL TUESDAY – Kristina Peterson reports for the WSJ: “President Barack Obama’s budget for fiscal year 2015 will be delivered this week to a Congress defused of much of the partisan tension over spending that has left the Capitol in a state of nearly constant fiscal crisis. Lawmakers in both chambers already have agreed on their overarching spending figure for the next fiscal year under the bipartisan budget agreement reached last December by House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) and his Senate counterpart, Patty Murray (D., Wash.). The result is that the budget push-and-pull between Mr. Obama and Congress skips ahead to the nitty-gritty spending decisions lawmakers make while drafting the traditional 12 spending bills known as the appropriations process. …
– “The White House blueprint is expected to include changes to the tax code to limit what it views as tax evasion among some U.S. companies with overseas operations, a boost for infrastructure funding and an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit for workers without children, among other provisions. The budget also is expected to point to an overhaul of the immigration system, currently stalled in Congress, an action administration officials say could help reduce the deficit.” http://on.wsj.com/1ojsJJw
– BUDGET CHAIRWOMAN PATTY MURRAY (D-WASH.) said there was no need for Senate Democrats to write a budget resolution this year, prompting howls from Republicans. POLITICO’s Burgess Everett: http://politi.co/1hr68u0
LOIS LERNER won’t testify before Congress after all, even though House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa asserted Sunday that she would. POLITICO’s Reid Epstein: http://politi.co/1g4khta
AFTER BRUISING IMMIGRATION FIGHT, RUBIO EYES COMEBACK – Manu Raju writes for the hometown paper: “Marco Rubio probably wouldn’t have been the biggest draw in Alabama last year, but last week he had big donors dropping big checks. The Florida Republican, who championed the Senate immigration bill last year, swung by a state that has taken a tough stand against illegal immigrants and has repeatedly elected the chief opponent of the Senate plan. But last Thursday evening, deep-pocketed Birmingham donors paid up to $ 32,000 apiece to schmooze with Rubio, raising more than $ 300,000 for the Senate GOP campaign committee. Rubio’s foray into the Deep South shows how quickly he has tried to put the bitter immigration fight behind him as he positions himself for what close allies say is an increasingly likely presidential bid in 2016.” http://politi.co/1fBTJia
TRANSITIONS – BRYAN THOMAS is heading down to Atlanta to join the Jason Carter for Governor campaign. It also happens to be where his fiancée works at the CDC. Thomas had served as communications director for Rep. Rick Larsen (D-Wash.). He’ll be replaced in Larsen’s office by Ingrid Stegemoeller, effective March 10.
GOOD MONDAY MORNING, MARCH 3, 2014, and welcome to The Huddle, where we’ve been watching the snow steadily falling on Capitol Hill the past couple hours. Send tips, suggestions, comments, complaints and corrections to swong@politico.com. If you don’t already, please follow me on Twitter @scottwongDC.
My new followers include @ClareFlann and @wyattlarkin.
TODAY IN CONGRESS – It’s a snow day for the House and Senate, which have both cancelled their sessions today. They’re expected to be back on Tuesday.
AROUND THE HILL – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican Leader Mitch McConnell are expected to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at 3:45 p.m. in S-216. Netanyahu meets with Speaker John Boehner and Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi at 4:45 p.m. in H-207. Those meetings could be cancelled due to snow. At 11 a.m. Tuesday, House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp keynotes a tax reform forum in Rayburn 2325. At 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, Camp headlines a Christian Science Monitor breakfast at the St. Regis Hotel.
BLACK CAUCUS: BASTION OF SENIORITY – POLITICO’s John Bresnahan crunches the numbers: “If the 84-year-old [John] Conyers wins reelection in November to a 26th term — as expected — he will become the dean of the House, the most senior member by length of service, replacing his onetime boss and Democratic icon, retiring Rep. John Dingell of Michigan. Conyers and other African-American lawmakers, in fact, belong to one of the few remaining bastions of incumbency — the Congressional Black Caucus.
– “Under current projections, the 114th Congress will include roughly 70 members who have been in the House for 20 years or more. One-fifth of those veteran lawmakers — 14 — will be black Democrats, including the two longest-serving members of the House, Conyers and Rep. Charles Rangel of New York. Rangel was first elected in 1970. Thanks to that seniority, CBC members could end up as top Democrat on at least seven major committees next year, including Education and the Workforce; Financial Services; Homeland Security; Judiciary; Oversight and Government Reform; Science, Space and Technology; and Veterans’ Affairs.” http://politi.co/1i5IciH
“Shifting Senate Landscape Draws New Faces,: GOP Used Polls to Woo Rep. Gardner to Challenge Sen. Udall in Colorado,” By the Wall Street Journal’s Janet Hook and Patrick O’Connor: “Rep. Cory Gardner of Colorado is in an enviable position, with a safe House seat and bright prospects for joining his party’s leadership. So when GOP officials last year asked him to give it all up to run for the Senate, he declined. Last week, amid more appeals from party leaders and weak poll numbers for Democrats, Mr. Gardner reversed course—a significant boost to GOP hopes not only for unseating Democratic Sen. Mark Udall but also for claiming a Senate majority. The story of Mr. Gardner’s change of mind shows how the political environment has deteriorated for congressional Democrats ahead of the midterm elections, which historically are difficult for the president’s party. It also is a reminder that campaigns are made or broken not just by money or message, but by who decides to run.” http://on.wsj.com/1bZqN8O
– And former Mississippi Rep. Travis Childers jumped into the race Friday against incumbent GOP Sen. Thad Cochran, sensing an opening for Democrats given what’s becoming a nasty Republican primary. http://politi.co/1eLgXXz
THE MESSY RACE FOR STEVE STOCKMAN’S SEAT – Katie Glueck reports for POLITICO: “A dozen Republicans are vying to replace the firebrand conservative congressman, who isn’t seeking reelection amid a quixotic bid for the Senate. And in the Lone Star State’s 36th Congressional District, which stretches from the Houston suburbs out to East Texas, activists are struggling to wade through all the options, while the large, right-leaning cast of candidates is competing to curry favor with the region’s highly conservative voters. At a recent debate, for instance, some of the biggest points of contention centered on whether to use drones on the border and whether to impeach President Barack Obama.” http://politi.co/1fBVn36
CRITICS HIT CONGRESS OVER NSA OVERSIGHT – Darren Samuelsohn reports for POLITICO; “Splashing America’s surveillance secrets on the front pages of newspapers for nearly nine months has created an array of scapegoats, from Edward Snowden to the NSA and President Barack Obama. Now the blame is also spreading to Congress. Cries of lax Capitol Hill oversight are piling up as Snowden-inspired stories continue to explode in the media, casting doubt on whether the legislative watchdogs can be trusted to oversee national security agencies that they’ve long defended. Intelligence Committee leaders from the House and Senate insist they’ve done their due diligence but acknowledge that lawmakers can glean only as much information as the president and his team will share. And even then, anything of such a highly classified nature can’t be legally disclosed anyway.” http://politi.co/1cnoEnV
IMMIGRATION HITS HOME FOR GOODLATTE – WaPo’s Pamela Constable in Roanoke, Va.: “As chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, a panel at the center of the national immigration debate, Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) has taken a tough stance on illegal immigration that reflects the views of many House Republicans: better border security and law enforcement before other reforms, and “zero tolerance” for illegal immigrants in the future. But as the representative of the sprawling 6th Congressional District in southwest Virginia, the former immigration lawyer faces the sort of changing demographics that have transformed this conservative, rural region into a multinational mosaic — and that have put immigration reform at the top of the national agenda. Roanoke, Goodlatte’s home in the Blue Ridge Valley, has seen its Hispanic population soar by 280 percent since 2000, to 6 percent of 100,000 residents — the biggest leap of any jurisdiction in the state except the Washington suburbs. In Harrisonburg, a college town 100 miles north, Hispanics have reached 16 percent of 49,000 residents.” http://wapo.st/1hEmb7x
THE OSCARS: ‘12 YEARS A SLAVE’ TAKES BEST PICTURE – The AP’s Jake Coyle: “Perhaps atoning for past sins, Hollywood named the brutal, unshrinking historical drama ‘‘12 Years a Slave’’ best picture at the 86th annual Academy Awards. Steve McQueen’s slavery odyssey, based on Solomon Northup’s 1853 memoir, has been hailed as a landmark corrective to the movie industry’s virtual blindness to slavery, instead creating whiter tales like 1940 best-picture winner ‘’Gone With the Wind.’ ‘12 Years a Slave’ is the first best-picture winner directed by a black filmmaker. …
– “The starved stars of the Texas AIDS drama ‘’Dallas Buyers Club’ were feted: Matthew McConaughey for best actor and Jared Leto for best supporting actor. … Cate Blanchett took best actress for her fallen socialite in Woody Allen’s ‘Blue Jasmine,’ her second Oscar.” http://bo.st/NMxVKA
FRIDAY’S TRIVIA WINNER – Drew Thies was first to correctly answer that Pedro Pierluisi, resident commissioner of Puerto Rico, is the member of Congress who serves a four-year term. Many of you also answered that the vice president, as president of the Senate, also serves a four-year term, which technically is also correct.
TODAY’S TRIVIA – Ben Pietrzyk offers an Oscars-themed question: What Oscar-winning actor was Ronald Reagan’s best man when he married Nancy Davis in 1952? The first person to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day’s Huddle. Email me at swong@politico.com.
GET HUDDLE emailed to your Blackberry, iPhone or other mobile device each morning. Just enter your email address where it says “Sign Up.” http://www.politico.com/huddle
** After years of saying “wait until next year,” Congress finally has bipartisan legislation to repeal Medicare’s broken funding formula. This is the news seniors have been waiting for. But we’re not over the finish line yet. Congress must act by March 31st to avoid another costly temporary patch. Let’s pass H.R. 4015/S. 2000, scrap the broken SGR formula and fix Medicare once and for all! FixMedicareNow.org
